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ECLIPSE OF THE ORANGE SUN

Tag: Statues

Trump Goes Dark and Dim

As the moon moves in front of the sun, the president is feeling the heat of his own party. Many loyal red-blooded Americans can’t understand why Trump will not condemn Neo-Nazis, White Nationalists and the KKK. He seems to have the same problem with Russia. Is Trump really a typical American?

The debate about confederate memorabilia around these lands was started by those who want to clear the air. When a young boy looks up at a big statue of a soldier, he automatically thinks that person must have been a hero. The meaning of the word confederate is a person who works with others, especially in something secret or illegal. A confederate is an accomplice, while a hero is a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities. You know, like a war hero.

The statues exist to celebrate the values behind the war by the KKK in the 1920s, not something that would have been appropriate right after the Civil War. Imagine if someone suggested we put up statues for Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. They were convicted spies. The people we are protecting under the guise of history and culture were traitors to the United States of America.

The only reason all those “great” Confederate leaders weren’t executed is because the people who signed the peace treaty wanted to heal America. Let’s put it in perspective. If ten of our current generals commanded a division of US forces to attack America, those officers would be charged with treason. If convicted, they would be executed. Surely, we wouldn’t build a statue to honor the guy who killed our soldiers at Fort Hood. No, of course not. Ironically, Fort Hood was named after Confederate General John Bell Hood.

After the civil war ended in 1865, the clear and calm minds in the US government decided to get beyond, as it’s called in the south, “our recent unpleasantness” rather than pouring salt in the wound. Today, we are tearing off the bandage. For what? It might not seem important to President Trump, but 620,000 people died in our Civil War, so it’s a little more than an argument over moonshine.

We aren’t going to spend tons of money today to remove the carvings from Stone Mountain in Georgia and Mount Rushmore is not going to be altered, but no one can defend Robert E. Lee by carrying a Nazi flag. That makes no sense. When you carry a Nazi flag, you are saying you believe that Jews should be killed. Really? Where is our great orange leader’s defense of the First Amendment? Oh, he probably hasn’t read that lately, if ever.

The Alt-right can carry the “stars and bars” (Confederate flag) and parade around claiming that they are defending white people from the diversification of America, but that would make them foolish, or as Steve Bannon declared, “A collection of clowns.”

I may sound a little “Yankee” here, but when I see the stars and bars flag on a truck, I think, “There goes another redneck.” And what makes a redneck bad? Nothing really, but behind the flag is, at least, a small symbol of racism. It instills fear in some African-Americans and presents a distorted view of the war between the states. The U.S. flag doesn’t instill fear, it instills pride. Big difference.

Abraham Lincoln freed more than three million people from the chains of slavery. Trump cannot change history. The Civil War was fought over SLAVERY. You cannot purify the southern cause of the war by leaving the statues up.

We rightfully celebrate Lincoln, but we should also remember he was assassinated by someone who thought the same way as many of those people marching in our streets to protect those statues today. Is that Donald Trump and the Alt-right want to be associated with? An assassin?

The radical right might be saying, hey, I don’t want to kill anyone, I just want this beautiful statue to remain in my park because I want to protect my “history and culture.” But what you are truly saying is you want to celebrate Southern trader soldiers to protect “white” peoples culture.

Yes, it was more than “recent unpleasantness.” This bigotry elected Donald Trump and we see it at work as he attempts to exploit the terrible events in Charlottesville, Virginia to his advantage. Hopefully my grandchildren won’t have to march in the streets to get Donald Trump statues torn down. We don’t see that many Richard Nixon statues, do we?

Not all people who live in the southern states carry ethnic hate, but Donald Trump fails to understand that his language carries weight and hurts people’s feelings. He has no soul or empathy with matters of political correctness or human suffering. He has just equated himself with the KKK and Neo-Nazis, does he realize that?

If you treated people with respect, you would see that your confederate flag-waving is a little wink-wink for the White Nationalists. If you want to protect your heritage and culture, erect a statue of a large pig on a spit with a bowl of grits and leave racist politics out of it. And if you are making grits, would you please add cheese? I prefer a little color in mine.